A residential security system, typically, is a stand-alone system that monitors various alarm conditions, such as the opening of a door or window or motion in a room. In response to these conditions, the security system may initiate an alarm and may auto-dial the police or a monitoring company. In many residences, the security system is equipped with several keypads with one often located near a main entrance and another located in the master bedroom. Although the exact design of keypads vary greatly, many keypads have numeric keys for the entry of special codes to disarm the system, indicators for displaying zone violations, and dedicated keys for auto-dialing the police or fire department. With this type of security system, a processing unit, which may be placed in a closet or other hidden area, is interconnected to the various motion sensors, closure contacts, the keypads, a siren, and includes the auto-dialer.
The typical residential security systems is a stand-alone device and has no interaction with other devices or systems in a residence. For instance, the typical security system is not interconnected and in no way controls a stereo system or a home theatre system. The security system also has no control over a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit and normally does have control over the lighting within the residence. These other devices or systems in the residence, instead, are stand-alone systems that provide dedicated control over the devices within their domain. For instance, an audio system may selectively control the routing of sound from a centralized audio source to numerous areas within or near the residence and may have separate keypads for each area of the residence. The home theatre system may similarly have keypads throughout the house for selectively supplying video from a central source to the various areas in the residence.
As a result of these independent systems, a residence may have a multitude of keypads distributed throughout the house. A single room, or even a single wall, may have several keypads which can be quite unsightly and detract from the overall appearance and decor of the residence. The keypads can also be quite troublesome to a resident since the keypads for the different systems in the residence are often associated with a particular operating methodology unique for each system. As a result, the resident would need to learn one procedure for operating the security system, another procedure for controlling the audio system, and yet another for the video system.
In light of a desire to have more automated control over the various devices in a residence, home automation systems have been developed which integrate the security system with one or more of the other systems, such as the lighting system. The home automation systems can provide more integrated control over all features of a house. With the home automation systems, it could be possible to perform such functions as turning on the lights in a room upon detection of motion or activating a coffee maker according to a set schedule.
A common approach to designing the home automation systems is to have a central processor communicate with each of the sub-systems and to coordinate each of the sub-systems activities. Each of the sub-systems, such as security and audio, would essentially retain their own internal design and would still have a processor which can be programmed according to the desires of the resident. To communicate with each of the sub-systems and to coordinate activities between the sub-systems, the central processor must know the commands for all of the sub-systems. With this knowledge of the commands, the central processor can command the lighting system to turn on the lights if the security system senses motion in a room or perform other coordinated functions between the sub-systems.
To address the problems with multiple keypads, home automation systems have merged two or more keypads for more than one sub-system into a single "smart" keypad. By reducing the number of keypads, the resident can more easily learn the methodology for operating the keypads and the residence would have less wall space consumed by the keypads. These smart keypads are programmed to be able to send various commands to the central processor which can then route theses commands to the individual sub-systems. To store and transmit these commands, a smart keypad has a processor and memory with the memory preferably being fairly large so that the keypad is able to store and convey a greater number of commands to the central processor.
The typical home automation system, therefore, is characterized as being a fairly powerful system with processors and associated memory in the central processor, in each of the sub-systems, and in the keypads. Because of the amount of electronics throughout the system, home automation systems have consequently been typically rather expensive. A need therefore exists for a home automation system that is not only less expensive but which does not sacrifice performance.
The typical home automation system is also rather difficult to design and develop. As discussed above, the sub-systems, the central processor, and the keypads all have processors and each of the processors are associated with some type of software program. The programs in each of the processors must be written, complied, and debugged. The initial writing of the programs is fairly difficult just considering the lines of code that must be generated for all of the processors. The task of generating the code, however, does not end with simply writing the code since the code must next be compiled, with is often laced with various syntax errors if the code does not include the proper spacing, positioning of commas, semi-colons, brackets, or other such punctuation or grammar. Once the programmer successfully compiles the code, the programmer is next faced with the onerous job of debugging the code. The programmer is inevitably challenged with having to detect problem area in the code, rewriting the code, and then repeating the steps of compiling and debugging. A significant portion of the design and development of the home automation system is therefore devoted to the process of writing, compiling, and debugging the code.
The difficulties with the code do not stop once the home automation system has been installed but continue if the resident desires another modification or upgrade. For instance, if the resident would like an additional keypad, the home automation system must be reprogrammed to know the address of the keypad. Furthermore, if the system only included security and audio and the resident wants an upgrade to include lighting, the home automation system must undergo some additional programming to accommodate the additional sub-system. This additional programming involves the writing, compiling, and debugging the code, and therefore serves as an obstacle to any modification or upgrade to the home automation system. As such, a need exists for a home automation system that can more easily and readily accommodate changes.
While an ideal home automation system includes all possible features, home automation systems practically are not all-inclusive. First of all, a home automation system which included all possible features would undoubtedly have an exorbitant cost. Consumers of home automation systems are not unanimous in the features that they desire and, as a result, home automation systems are designed to have various combinations of features. In addition to the economics, rapid changes in technology preclude such an all-inclusive system. As technology advances and becomes available, home automation systems will be encouraged to incorporate the new technology.
Other forces at work in technology and in the marketplace create new opportunities not only for home automation systems but for any residential control system. These forces include the increased competition between companies providing local phone service, long distance phone service, cellular phone, pager service, cable television, and Internet access. The lines between companies that traditionally provided only one or two of these services are fading as the laws and regulations are being rewritten to encourage the competition between companies. A residential control system, such as a home automation system, should therefore be flexible to accommodate and incorporate the changes that are imminent with the provision of telephone, cable, and Internet services.
In addition to the deregulation of the communications field, deregulation and increased competition with electrical utility companies will also likely have an impact on the provision of services in the field of electrical power. A utility company as well as all other generators of electricity generally implement a tiered approach for meeting the demand from all of its customers. At the first step, demand from all of its customers for electricity is relatively low and can be satisfied by the utility company's most energy efficient generators. As the demand becomes high and increases past the capacity of these higher efficiency generators, the utility company relies on less efficient and more expensive generators. These more expensive generators are less desirable due to their relatively low efficiency, their use of more expensive fuels, their higher levels of pollution, or the fines which are associated with their operation. At the third step, after the demand exceeds the internal capacity of a utility company, the utility company then purchases electricity from other utilities, often at a premium.
The utility companies, however, have very little control over the demand for electricity and thus limited control over their costs. Presently, an individual consumer of electricity, such as a household, has no knowledge of the demand level of the utility company unless the demand becomes an emergency issue for an entire geographical region. Thus, unless some type of warning has issued, consumers use as much electricity as they desire and at the times that they desire. A need therefore exists for a system or method by which utility companies can inform consumers of the present demand so the consumers can act to reduce the overall demand and thus act to reduce the overall cost of electricity.
Even if consumers had knowledge of the particular demand level for a utility company, however, the consumers would have no immediate incentive to alter their use of electricity to help keep the overall demand at a low level. While the aggregate effect of each individual consumer's activity could help keep costs down and thus lower the overall cost of electricity, a single consumer would have little incentive to alter his or her usage merely to increase the profits of the utility company. Further, although costs to the consumers may likely be reduced if the overall demand on a utility company is lower, many consumers may be unwilling to alter their schedules to less convenient times when other consumers, who do not alter their schedule, still receive the benefits of the reduced costs. A need thus exists for a system or method which provides incentives for consumers to reduce the overall demand on the utility company and which provides consumers with direct and prompt benefits.
In addition to the high cost associated with purchasing electricity from another utility company, the purchase of electricity from another utility company has other drawbacks. For instance, the chance and impact of a power failure increases with the number of utility companies in a power grid. As evident by events in the Pacific Northwest, an isolated and relatively minor failure can cause power outages in an area spanning several states. Thus, a need exists for a system or method for controlling overall demand on electricity, not only because a lower demand would reduce costs, but also because a lower demand would reduce the reliance on integrated power grids and should therefore increase the overall reliability of the utility companies.
Another problem facing a utility company is that it has a fairly small capacity to communicate with its consumers. Under typical circumstances, this contact is limited to a monthly bill detailing the total amount of electricity consumed and the associated cost. The utility company therefore staffs a relatively small number of personnel to handle consumer problems. During a power failure, on the other hand, a massive number of consumers call in to inquire as to the problem. At these times, the utility company is ill-equipped to handle all of the calls and consumers may be placed on hold for an extremely long period of time, such as an hour or more. This inattentiveness to the consumers' calls can significantly magnify the consumers' aggravation toward the situation and to the utility company. A need therefore exists for a system or method which improves communications between consumers and a utility company.
A need also exists for a system or method by which consumers can have an increased amount of control over their energy usage. Typically, each appliance within a house has its own dedicated control. For instance, a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit within a house has a thermostat for setting the desired temperature and a hot water heater has a control unit for controlling the temperature of the water. Additionally, the stereo, television, computer, and lamps would each have separate on/off switches. To reduce energy consumption, the consumer would therefore have to individually control each separate appliance, which can be quite burdensome. It is therefore a desire to have greater and easier control over energy consumption.
To partially fulfill the desire for greater control over energy consumption, certain appliances have been equipped with programmable units. For instance, many HVAC units have programmable control units which allows the consumer to indicate different desired temperatures for different times of the day and for different days of the week. These controls provide the consumer with the ability to match consumption more closely with the actual need. Once these control units have been programmed, however, the consumer must reprogram the unit so that the programmed schedule of usage becomes equal to the actual desired schedule of energy usage. For example, if a person comes home earlier than normal, the person must manually adjust the setting on the HVAC to the desired setting. Since a person's schedule can change often, a need exists for a system or method of controlling energy consumption which can adjust more easily and quickly to a desired or actual schedule of usage.